Monday, March 17, 2008

Rare Kudos to MSNBC

For the most part I have liked David Gregory. And only for a second or so did I ever like Tucker Carlson. What the hell good is a liberal media if the only liberal on the air is Keith Olbermann, with the occasional brief appearance of Eugene Robinson and Rachel Maddow? Otherwise it seems to me that Pat Buchannon is the voice of MSNBC. But I digress. It was David Gregory we’re talking about here. Today was the debut of his new show, with a panel of my two favorites, Rachel Maddow and Eugene Robinson. I’m glad both Rachel and Eugene will also stay where they are, Air America and The Washington Post, respectively. They have a token Republican, Morning Joe Scarborough, but it could be worse, it could be, well, Tucker Carlson for instance, or worse yet, Petrified Pat Buchannon.

It was a very fast hour. Unlike Hardball which is the slowest hour of my day. Gregory’s taking email comments and questions. Bloggers, start your engines.

PS Loved the new SNL clip

PPs Also looked like MSNBC dialed down the bells and whistles and all the fancy flashing graphics. Classy move guys. If you can do it for David why don't you do it for everybody--then they might not look so stupid.

PPPS Waiting for Barack's speech tomorrow.

8 comments:

Stella by Starlight said...

Rachel Maddow! My hero, too. Her shows are so powerful and she's so brilliant. I love Randi Rhodes, too. She doesn't play. Tom Hartmann and Ed Schultz are great. I'm a bona fide liberal talk radio junkie.

Also, Stephanie Miller is terrific. Here's the link to you can access her show via streaming audio. She's a riot and a great change of pace.

Miller is the daughter of William Miller, running mater of Barry Goldwater; she is running with Barry Goldwater's granddaughter, CeCe Goldwater, both of whom are proud liberals.

They run on the following tongue-in-cheek platform: Family Name. No Skills. Just like W."

Vigilante said...

I only reason I'm putting a comment in here is to restore this thread. No one, with any taste, can follow a comment like Stella's. (She says it all, as usual!) But now that I have made a very modest contribution, the discussion in this thread might resume!

LTE said...

Speaking of veteran Air-Americans, anyone heard how Al Franken is doing running against Norm Coleman in Minnesota?

Utah Savage said...

Stella, Randi Rhodes did a rant on Rev. Wright today that really pissed me off. I happen to think the Rev is pretty much spot on, so I hate to hear a liberal like Rhodes, go on a rant about snippets of sermons taken out of the church, the only place blacks in America have to congregate, hence, congregation, to rant about the injustice and racism they face every damn day. No, I haven't been called nigger, but I dated a black retired homicide detective who was. And since I was with him I know how he felt--it takes a lot of control to swallow racism all day every day. Some of those older black men know the full force of americans bigotry and race hatred. So, no, Hillary probably has never been called nigger. But plenty of black men and women have.

Sorry for the rant. It was just this afternoon that I listened to Randi R. go off on the Wright Rev.

Samuel Brainsample said...

When I heard that Tucker was being canceled, I was hopeful that MSNBC would finally start to move away from punditry and get back to journalism. At the time, I thought, "Maybe they'll ease up on the election horse race thing and start to break down important issues."

Imagine my disappointment when I found out that the new show was titled "Race For The White House."

I haven't seen the show yet, and Gregory isn't bad, but the endless discussion of "Does this help or hurt Candidate X?" is getting irritating. Especially when there are such big, complex issues out there that cry out for a little explanation. But these people (pundits) can't seem to focus on anything unless it involves sex, race or gender.

Stella by Starlight said...

Randi Rhodes? Aargh, please tell me you're kidding. Please?

No problem with the rant: I expect more of her than that. You are certainly correct that the church has been a loci of the Black community. If she didn't get the entire context, that concerns me. I'll try and get a copy of the broadcast to post on my blog so we can all hear what she said.

You stated Some of those older black men know the full force of American's bigotry and race hatred. I was on civil rights marches with my parents at quite a young age. You are right on target. No apologies necessary.

I take exception with NBC on one level—they are owned by GE and kept Mike Gravel out of the presidential primary debates because of his extreme anti-war stance: and he has experience to back up his position. Unfortunately, he will never assume office of be heard in the mainstream.

Vig, thanks so much for your kind words. You can read my profile: I cop to being verbose due to my stream of consciousness blogging. And, yes, Vig, I'm still tilting those windmills. What if one falls down? =)

A good day to you all.

Vigilante said...

FYI, LTE, Franken is down 3-4 points from Coleman if you average two polls.

Petrosexual said...

Stephanie Miller talks too fast for my mind. She's cute though. Only reason I listen to her.